O’Rourke has raised more than $6M for race against Cruz

1of 2Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has raised $1.9 million in the final three months of 2017, his campaign announced.Photo: Michael Minasi /Houston Chronicle

2of 2Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Beto O’Rourke has announced that he had raised $2.4 million in the last three months of 2017.Photo: Annie Mulligan /For the Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN — For a candidate who is supposed to be a long shot, Beto O’Rourke sure is raising a lot of money.

The Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful announced Sunday night that he had raised $2.4 million in the last three months of 2017. That is on top of just under $4 million O’Rourke raised from March 2017 to October for his race against Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

To put that in perspective, in 2012, Democrat Paul Sadler raised just $683,000 for the entire campaign against Cruz in his first campaign for the Senate. And in 2014, Democrat David Alameel raised less than $50,000.

O’Rourke, 45, has also raised his more than $6.4 million in the campaign without the help of any political action committees so far, as the El Paso Democrat tries to make a statement about big money in politics.

“Putting 100 percent of our faith and focus in the people of Texas is proving to be more than a match for the PACs, special interests and corporations who have captured, corroded and corrupted Congress for far too long,” O’Rourke said in a statement to the media.

“We raised over $2.4 million from more than 55,500 donations, most of which came from Texas, every single one of them made by real people to take back our state and our country with everything we care about on the line in this election.”

The next campaign finance reports are supposed to be reported to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. O’Rourke, a member of the U.S. House since 2012, released his fundraising totals early.

Cruz’s campaign announced he had raised $1.9 million in the final three months of 2017.

From the start of the campaign, national political watchers in D.C. have considered O’Rourke a long shot and Cruz good money to return to the U.S. Senate. But O’Rourke has been getting notice. On Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told donors at a Houston fundraiser that O’Rourke is rising star.

“There is going to be a big wave,” Schumer said after introducing O’Rourke. “You are going to see it in Texas.”

In another development, state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, is joining the Democrat’s campaign as political director in a move that could shore up O’Rourke’s credentials in Austin.